Rudd FINALLY calls for an end to laws criminalising homosexuality at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth next week

...despite calls for action at CHOGM in 2009. Australia did not confront Commonwealth country Uganda over a proposed anti-homosexuality bill which called for the death penalty for gay Ugandans.

I acknowledge receipt of your email of 10 December 2009 regarding the proposed Ugandan legislation against homosexuality.

I appreciate your concern for the gay and lesbian people of Uganda and the threat to their welfare from this Bill. I have written to the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd and to the Foreign Minister, the Hon Stephen Smith, voicing the concerns of the Anglican Church regarding the human rights violations entailed were this legislation to be implemented.

Yours sincerely

The Most Rev’d Dr Phillip Aspinall
Primate

The Rev’d Gillian Moses
Executive-Research Assistant to the Primate
St. Martin's House,
373 Ann St.
G.P.O. Box 421,
Brisbane, Qld., Australia, 4001

Tel. +61 7 3835 2222
Fax.+61 7 3832 5030
Date: Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 3:26 PM

Hey Wal...did Sydney Anglicans offer support to LGBT people in Uganda?

Not likely Merv... because of their close relationship with Archbishop Orombi and GAFCON (the coalition of the willing to persecute GLBTIQ people)...they were approached first... but couldn't sign the petition because God told them to criminalise homosexual behaviour. They responded with a draft which was sure to have the Kill Bill passed!

We, Christians of various nationalities and traditions throughout the world, are alarmed at the severity of the penalties that are proposed under Uganda’s new ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’.

In raising our protest and calling for reconsideration by the Ugandan government, we want to emphasise that we do not support or condone homosexual behaviour. The teaching of Scripture is clear that such behaviour is contrary to God’s purpose in creation, which is for the joyful expression of our sexuality in the context of the life-long marriage of a man and woman. Two thousand years of Christian witness have also made clear that all sexual activity outside of such a context is prohibited by the God who made us. In particular, it is highly significant that the stand Christians have made against homosexuality has played an important part in Ugandan history, extending as far back as the martyrs of Busega Natete in January 1885.

While we believe it is perfectly appropriate for civil authorities to impose legal and criminal sanctions on such behaviour, the severity of the penalties widely publicised as part of the new legislation in Uganda are excessive. In particular, life imprisonment and the death penalty would seem to be extreme responses to such aberrant behaviour.

We therefore call on Christians around the world, and particularly Christian leaders, to use all possible avenues to have the proposed legislation modified so that the excessively severe penalties are removed.

Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 9:39 PM